Conor McGregor’s Teammate Dillon Danis has been accused that he provoked the reigning lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov to jump off the octagon and attack him by hurting his religious sentiments with his derogatory remarks, but Danis denies having said anything that would offend the Russian.
According to TMZ Sports, Dillon Danis is to be blamed for the post-fight brawl at UFC 299 as his anti-religion garble enraged the Dagestan native, resulting in chaos.
The 25-year-old American Bellator artist is McGregor’s jiu-jitsu coach and has been training with the former two-division champion since 2016. Danis was watching the whole fight closely from the Notorious’ corner. Right after smothering McGregor, the undefeated champion turned his attention towards Danis. He first threw his mouth guard in his direction and then jumped off the cage throwing a kick at him.
The two got caught up in an altercation trying to hit each other with punches, but were soon separated with the help of security and fans.
An unknown witness to the whole ordeal claims that Danis provoked the current champ by calling him “f***king Muslim rat” according to TMZ Sports.
According to the tabloid news website,
“We spoke with a fan who was sitting in spitting distance from Danis during the fight — and we’re told Danis was running his mouth throughout most of the fight. There was a moment between the second and third rounds when Khabib shot a death stare right at Dillon, according to our witness who says it was obvious Khabib heard at least some of the insults. But, we’re told the final straw was the Muslim insult that Danis hurled toward the end of the fight.”
In response to the accusation put on Danis, this is what the jiu-jitsu fighter said,
fake news
— Dillon Danis (@dillondanis) October 9, 2018
“Fake news.” – Dillon Danis
While discussing the post-fight mayhem, the Irishman’s coach John Kavanagh stated on Joe Rogan Podcast that he wasn’t aware whether Danis had uttered something offensive to the Russian. He stated that the off-cage feud maybe the result of online trolling that took before UFC 229.
Dillon aspires to have a career similar to McGregor. A few days before the fight, the 25-year-old fighter had been aiming at Nurmagomedov’s skills and background.
According to the Irishman’s coach,
“(Danis) actually didn’t say anything. I was standing beside Dillon. I didn’t see what he did but I could hear. He didn’t say anything. When I watched it back I could see him beckon (Nurmagomedov) on. It’s just stupid end of fight stuff. But it didn’t justify that level of response.
He went on to add,
“Maybe there was something else in the build up. Dillon is a little bit of trouble online. But, like I said, it wasn’t that big of a deal to me what Khabib did. It just really wasn’t.”
Right now, both UFC 229 star fighters, Khabib and Conor are facing sanctions for an unprofessional behaviour post-fight from Nevada State Athletic Commission. However, Danis remains clean and hasn’t been handed over any penalty.
In fact, it has been revealed that the jiu-jitsu fighter went to a club after the fight. Brian Ortega told TMZ Sports that he came across the fighter in a nightclub. Brain told the news website,
“At first I was like damn, what are you doing here — especially alone. I was like ‘this guy’s a savage right now’. He had a hood on, trying to be low key, but he came up to me, he was respectful, he was like ‘hey man, you’re holding it down for the jiu jitsu community, you’re doing your thing, I admire you, I appreciate it.’ He was cool about the whole situation.”
Ortega further added,
“He wouldn’t really tell me much (about the brawl). He was like, ‘yeah man, s***t got crazy. These guys started throwing, I started throwing.’ One of his eyes was swollen. He was just telling me he got a concussion, so he got down too man. After that, he was going to walk out by himself, and I told my boy, I go ‘make sure this guy gets out of here alright,’ cause, you know, there seemed to be some Russians in that club. So I was like ‘make sure this guy gets out safely.’ Cause the last thing you want is this guy getting jumped going out.”
What do you think about Khabib vs. Conor post-fight melee?
